Her name was Starr and it was dark inside her trailer. She gave us sugary Cokes we drank out of the can as the caseworker talked. When she spoke, Starr moved her whole body, throwing her head back to laugh. A small gold cross glittered between her breasts, and the caseworker couldn't keep his eyes off that deep secret place. She and the caseworker didn't even notice when I went outside.

There were no fringy jacarandas here, only oleanders and palms, pear cactus and a big weeping pepper. The dust that covered everything was the pinkish beige of sandstone, but the sky was broad as an untroubled forehead, the pure leaded blue of stained glass. It was the first time the ceiling wasn't pressing on my head.

The biggest boy, the one with the glasses, stood up. "We're catching lizards, you want to?"

They trapped the lizards with shoebox snares down in the wash. The patience of such small boys as they waited, silent, still, for a green li/aiu